ATC Radio Navigation Tool Showcase

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Every time I played Nuclear Thunder, I wished there was an ATC radio navigation. I really enjoy active radio communication because it adds a lot and makes the gameplay feel more authentic.

So I decided to develop a tool that simulates an ATC system for War Thunder. It has only been tested in single-player (test flight) so far.

Do you think a tool like this would be against the rules?

It just and only works with data provided by localhost API from War Thunder itself.

Here are its current core features:

  • Request a navigational approach to the nearest airfield for landing.
  • Cancel ongoing navigation at any time.
  • Request a direct heading to an airfield, with ATC providing the direction.
  • If the player overshoots the runway, ATC initiates a go-around procedure and guides the player back into position.
  • Radio voices are generated on the fly. Nothing is pre recorded and put together.

To explain features of what this tool actually does:

If you start a navigation the tower will give you headings which lead to the runway. It will tell you if you are to high, to low, to fast, or too slow. It will also tell you to maintain your speed or altitide or heading.

Voices are dynamically created on the fly. Nothing sounds the same, nothing is spoken before you hear it. No pre recorded audio has been used for voices at all.
Effects have been used to make it sound more authentic. Voices sometimes get a little lower or louder. Noice clicks and static noise have been added.

You control the tool with keybinds which you can configure.

The three options are:
Asking for navigation, cancel an ongoing navigation or ask for a heading to the airfield. The closest airfield will answer your call.

All airfields (lets say you have 9 airfields on the map) will have a unique codename and a unique random voice. The pilot will also have a random codename. This is different everytime you go into a session.

If an airfield gets destroyed while you maintain a navigation on it it will cancel approach.

Headings are based on your location. If the airfield is pointing to the north and you are noth east from it, it will get you a heading from this location or create the waypoints in favor of your location. This is made so the gameplay would go with the nature of war thunder itself which is not a hardcore flight sim. It is possible to make things optional though.

I realize that most players might not be interested in something like this, but for people like me who enjoy flight sims such as Falcon BMS or DCS, this kind of radio communication adds a lot to the experience.

Video presentation:

I’d appreciate your thoughts and feedback, especially regarding whether using a tool like this in online battles would be permitted.

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I feel like for the purposes of war thunder it is a bit too much. It would enrich the experience for players like yourself but I would imagine that you’d be better served with instrument navigation. Guidance via VOR/NDBs and ILS for the precision approach and ofc the proper display on your instruments. The VOR/HSIs only function as simple magnetic compasses in-game I believe.

Since Gaijin hasn’t even properly implemented PAPI yet, we are likely years away from any of this.

If Gaijin ever adds radio communication they might as well also add ATIS and VOLMET and proper airspace structure with corresponding frequencies ;)

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Very interesting idea, and I’ll certainly follow it’s progress!

Some questions (that may be ideas) however:

  • Can you actually select which airfield to communicate with?
  • Can you select a runway heading?
  • Are the speed and other communicated parameters (“descend to 500ft”) variable, e.g. depending on aircraft, elevation of the airfield,…, or could they somehow be configured/customized?
  • How do you communicate with the tool (keybinds?), and what control is possible?
  • Would it also work in SIM (not sure if more limited info available via API for that mode…)?

A bit more in-depth ideas:

  • Approximation of GCA procedures (would need not only direction but also rate of descend info)
  • Selectable approaches and corresponding communication (simple/direction only, direct approach, overhead pattern, GCA-approach.
  • Possibility to add also T/O-clearance communications
  • Static chatter for immersion

Always the big question which would have to be answered by people who know more about this. But from a first glimpse, I don’t see how it would offer a gameplay relevant advantage over other players, or could be abused to give users an unfair advantage…

(Personal note: I’ve got a lot of experience especially with GCA but also other procedures from my time when I headed the virtual Swiss Air Force, a club where we tried to emulate the Swiss Air Force as well as technically possible in MSFS, with direct inputs form real air force pilots and ground controllers, so mkaybe I can even help with some aspects)

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Well, Gaijin is years away from it, or has no intention for such implementations at all. Therefore such a separate solution would be very interesting for certain players.

For me personally, immersion is very important, and while that is generally a big shortcoming of WT, anything that goes that way would be highly appreciated…

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A little more funfacts about the tool:
Codenames are dynamic. Pilot can have up to 60+ codenames… same goes for tower + numbers.
Voices are generated on the fly while the tool is running. Everything sounds a little different every time. This opens up possibilities.

To answer your questions:

  • " Can you actually select which airfield to communicate with?"

At the moment just the closest airfield answers your call. However I could easily add a radio frequence you could enter somewhere (in a simple or complex way) to make you select a certain airfield.

A little funfact: every airfield on the map has a unique voice.

  • “Can you select runway heading?”

At the moment it is automatically selected for you. So if you are in the north east of the runway which is pointing from north to south then an approach course from this position is given.
This however could also be optional. The version you see in the video is just the first initial version at all. The idea was to go with War Thunder. Make it look and sound complex but also keep it easy to maintain… if that makes sense.

  • “How do you communicate with the tool (keybinds?), and what control is possible?”

You use simple keybinds. Controls possible are asking for navigation (to the closest airfield), cancel an on going navigation (just works when navigation is already active) and Heading to the Airfield. Here the tower will just tell you once where the runway is from your current location. If you are not on a map (main menu, war thunder not started) nothing will happen. It detects there is data from API and only then works. If you go into a test flight and then go back to the main menu every data is deleted (codenames from airfield, codenames from pilot and so on)… you go back to test flight and new names are given.

  • “Would it also work in SIM?”

I’m not sure but you cannot see in what mode the player is so the mode itself does not matter. You could also use this in arcade.

  • Approximation of GCA procedures (would need not only direction but also rate of descend info)"

The Tower will give you decend info like you can hear in the video. Also speed information, either too fast, maintain or lower. The issue with that is that the localhost API is not giving you information about the current airfield AGL. That means the tower can only roughly guess. I knew that from the beginning but still wanted to proceed the development. I am aware of the limitation. I still want radio communication.

  • “Selectable approaches and corresponding communication (simple/direction only, direct approach, overhead pattern, GCA-approach.”

Well, overhead pattern is already shown in the video (I just show the announcement of it but the tower will actually give you a pattern and lead you through it). I didn’t want the video to get too boring because it already shows one landing approach.
Selectable Approaches are already supported.
The headings are given to 3 points from your location… entry point, final and treshold.
WP: These are dynamically created based on your position (west east north south from AF). It will lead you to the Entry point, then final, then treshold.
continuous navigation = leading from tower is on a path. Path is similiar to WP. If you get away from that it will tell you.
dynamic = leading is from your actual location to the airfield (shown in the video, what most people would prefer).
There is also continuous navigation (tower keeps you up to date all the time), procedural (messages are short, tower is not informing you all the time)… and procedural communication which is not continious but compact messages instead.

  • Possibility to add also T/O-clearance communications

Might be a thing in the future. Not as easy to implement at the moment. Still would be possible to at least give the feeling of it.

  • Static chatter for immersion

The tool is actually creating all the audio on the fly. Everything. It also makes voices louder or surpresses them or add clicks. I was planning to add more static chatter though when the tool would be in a better state.

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Thanks! Very informative and it looks like very well though through! = )

Hm, what information do you actually get from the API? Does it also provide info on your aircraft (type) and what map you’re on?

(Sorry, I know next to zero about how the API works, hehe…)

Say, if the type is known, the tool could (bases on info that could be put in a csv file or similar) provide approach speeds based on the specific aircraft’s specifications and limits, and similarly depending on map (and side where the player plays) take into account the actual elevations of the airfields.

OR the player gets the possibility to select a “setup”, where he selects type, elevation, and so on. That would mean a bit of preflight work, but especially for a Sim player like me that would be perfectly in order to make few clicks before I enter a Sim EC match, for example…

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That is no problem. The exact aircraft is known through the API so you could pretty much do stuff like that.
Also I could provide settings in the UI to let the player make inputs himself. Also radio frequencies would be possible. I would just assign a radio frequency to all airfields and let the user configure a radio in the UI.

The true issue lays in how “legal” this all is. Is this giving the player an advantage? Can the use of the tool lead to a ban?
I hate cheaters. I don’t want to considered as a “cheater”. The intention of this tool is to imrpove gameplay and immersion.
I play War Thunder since 2013 and I don’t want to lose my account because of a tool with good intentions. I also understand Gaijin. They cannot give me a clear yes because people could update their tools then and give unfair advantages after they gave the greenlight for the tool. The situation is complicated.

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I’ll try to find out… = )

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I will take further notes of ToS and Eula and then release the tool if I see it is possible. Gaijin cannot help here since they cannot control every version of a third party tool so people have to decide this on their own. Further opinions and research is highly welcomed though.

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Interesting Idea and i support it, though i can guarantee very few players are gonna follow the instructions and just do as they please, but for someone like me who values realism, this is a +1 for me.

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